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1. EXAMPLE 1
American Equality
“The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal” (Harrison Bergeron). From the
first sentence, the author of Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut, tells his audience that he is
writing about a society in a future utopian civilization. After the “211th, 212th, and 213th
Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States
Handicapper General,” (Harrison Bergeron) the people of North America were equal in every
single way including intelligence, physicality and looks. As the story goes on, it becomes clear
that he writes about a dystopian future. Obviously, this satirical piece has its main roots in
aspects of equality. Taken to the extreme, Kurt Vonnegut argues that the qualities portrayed as
equality in his short, related to prevalent qualities of his time, story were petty. These
characteristics of intelligence, physical abilities, and looks may not be the most important issues
of equality, yet they were all qualities that the media of Kurt’s society imposed substance to.
Thesis:
Kurt Vonnegut argues that the qualities such as intelligence, physical abilities and looks are
important in describing individual differences and should not be incorporated with equality
2. EXAMPLE 2
Hazel is aware of the handicapped people around her. She notices her husband’s struggles
with his handicaps, and even suggests, “why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest
your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch?” (Vonnegut, 2) This suggestion of Hazel’s refers
to “the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George's
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neck.” (Vonnegut, 2) Her proposal shows that she is more aware than the government gives her
credit for. The awareness she displays in this passage nearly dismisses the world’s attempt at
equality, because Hazel knows her husband is unequal to her. She goes on to say, “Go on and
rest the bag for a little while," she said. "I don't care if you're not equal to me for a while.”
(Vonnegut, 2) This acknowledgement is an example of how unbalanced the relationship between
Hazel and George is.
George has a high intelligence level. “George, while his intelligence was way above
normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all
times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter
would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of
their brains,” partially describes George’s handicaps. (Vonnegut, 1) “The forty-seven pounds of
birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George's neck,” outlines the rest.
(Vonnegut, 2) While George is required to wear these handicaps so that he is equal at all times,
he could not be more unequal to those around him. In George’s moments of lucidity, his
intelligence level far surpasses Hazel’s at any given second. If he so desired, George could
remove his birdshot and be the strongest man in town.
TOPIC SENTENCE PARAGRAPH 1:
Hazel’s character represents a member of society who is aware of the handicapped people
around her, one of those people being her husband.
TOPIC SENTENCE PARAGRAPH 2:
George represents someone who is above average in society and must be handicapped to be
mentally stable with other members of society.
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3. EXAMPLE 3
Don’t Touch That Dial! Dependency with The Machine Stops will be right back!
The short story The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster is very prophetic and a warning to
future generations. Forster is cautioning the future generations because he realizes the potential
consequences that technology can bring. These consequences, which are illustrated to the
extreme in The Machine Stops, are a real threat to today’s society. The pitiful human race in The
Machine Stops shows the absolute ruin that would come about from a technology-ruled society.
The story depicts a future dystopian society in which humans have been driven underground and
now rely on a man-made machine to keep them alive. The people believe the machine to be allpowerful, and give it a celestial status as a “god”. However, the machine is not as powerful as
the people believe it to be. As time goes on, the machine starts to break down, endangering the
people who live in the depths of the Earth. E.M. Forster argues against dependency on
technology. This paper will cover some examples from The Machine Stops that show the
obvious consequences that were disastrous for the dystopian society that lived with the Machine.
Thesis: E. M Forster, in The Machine Stops, argues that there is a very high dependence on
technology; he also shares consequences of this high dependence.
4. EXAMPLE 4
Beauty Is Only Mask Deep: The Dangers of Equality
Our daily life is filled with hope for equality; equality in marriage, voting rights, wages,
etc. In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, total equality is achieved. The entire country,
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including the two main characters George and Hazel, is required to wear handicaps that force
every person to be equal to the lowest common denominator. The handicaps ensure that no
person has an advantage over another and include weight to make them short and slow, ear
radios that hinder thinking, and masks to cover their faces. George and Hazel’s son, Harrison, is
an outstanding human being with high athletic ability and beauty and is therefore given more
handicaps than any other person is given. However, he quickly overcomes the handicaps and
tries to revolt against the Handicapper General, the group of people in charge of controlling the
handicaps. Harrison is shot on live television for attempting to resist the equality and his parents
are watching but they quickly forget what they saw due to the handicaps in their ears. Vonnegut
not only uses “Harrison Bergeron” to show total equality in society is a negative intention but
also that our current pursuit is trivial. I will argue that his stance is accurate by highlighting his
satirical points, discussing the importance of competition, and separating moral quests for
egalitarianism from trivial quests of equal physical appearance.
Thesis:
In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, he argues total equality in society is a negative
intention but also that our current pursuit is trivial by highlighting his satirical points,
discussing the importance of competition, and separating moral quests for egalitarianism.
5. EXAMPLE 5
Advertisement beckons people to do their hair a certain way, to dress a certain way, and
shows people what attractive looks like. For any product, advertisement usually includes an
attractive model to help sell their product. Thus people of todays’ society have become blinded
from the true meaning of beauty via these advertisements. People no longer can decide what’s
beautiful; rather, it is forced upon them via magazines, TV shows, or billboards. The people of
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today’s society do not differ much from the society in which Kurt lived in. It is the case then in
Harrison Bergeron that he depicts the ballerinas that were forced to wear masks in order to cover
their beauty. They “were masked, so that no one, seeing a free face and graceful gesture or a
pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in” (Harrison Bergeron). What Kurt is
commentating on is that people get caught up in trying to look good, or dress well that some may
lose sight of what really is important.
Topic Sentence: Advertisement is considered a tool of encouraging people to look certain ways
just as ballerinas do in Harrison Bergeron.
6. EXAMPLE 6
“They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better
looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” The society
presented in “Harrison Bergeron” as represented by the passage is one where all humans are
made to be as similar as possible. The agents of the handicapper general do this through a series
of techniques that, even though it presented as if the humans in this society fear individuality.
The most severe of these techniques is the placement of a handicap radio in ears of people
considered to have a higher intelligence. This radio chimes every twenty seconds a very violent
noise in order to interrupt any thought patterns. Without the ability to think can you even be
considered a human being? The people in this story are comparable to zombies that are forced to
be as primitive as possible.
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Topic Sentence: Short story, Harrison Bergeron represents a society where every one is
equal in physical appearance, intelligence and strength.
7. EXAMPLE 7
While this connection may be a stretch, it may be audacious to bring to light one of
Forster’s beliefs on humanities relationship with science and nature. He eloquently pronounces
“the sun had conquered, yet it was the end of his spiritual dominion. Dawn, midday, twilight, the
zodiacal path, touched neither men’s lives nor their hearts, and science retreated into the ground,
to concentrate herself upon problems that she was certain of solving” (Forster 8). Depending
upon one’s interpretation, this quote could mean two things. Forster could be metaphorically
predicting that in a future dystopian society, individuals would become so standardized, creating
a world where creativity and innovation have become obsolete. Moreover, it could also have a
double meaning in that humans have begun to lose all connection with the natural world, and
have lost all appreciation for the environment and natural surroundings. Forster alternatively
employs the use of personification to suggest man’s departure from an environmentally
conscious attitude.
Topic Sentence: Forster focuses on his belief that there is a connection between humanities
and science and nature.
8. Unlike her children, Tessie Hutchinson pleads for her family’s safety. Mrs. Hutchinson is
a younger woman with a husband and three children. She rebels against the idea of the box at the
beginning of the story and ends up being the character sentenced to death. Mrs. Hutchinson was
the last one to arrive to the Lottery, and as she scurries to the meeting she finds Mrs. Delacroix
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and states, “‘clean forgot what day it was’”(Jackson 2). This shows how the Lottery is
insignificant to her. It is ironic that the person who almost did not show up to the Lottery is also
the one who pulled out the paper with the black dot. When Mrs. Hutchinson’s family is chosen
from the lottery, she argues against it, “Tessie Hutchinson [shouts] to Mr. Summers, ‘You didn’t
give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!’”(Jackson 15).
After her defense, her husband silences her, showing how so me people blindly follow the ritual,
even if they know it leads to death, because they are not bold enough to question it. At the end,
when everyone is closing in on her, Mrs. Hutchinson’s last words are “‘it isn’t fair, it isn’t right’”
(Jackson 20). Her last words, I think, are the truest words in the text–they reveal the danger of
the ritual. Jackson makes a key point when he states that “Steve Adams was in the front of the
crowd of villagers” when moving in on Mrs. Hutchinson. This shows that even the people, who
question tradition, can also be the first to continue its practice.
Topic Sentence:
Tessie Hutchinson demonstrates a member of society who does not take in significance
from the lottery drawing.